MUD Development Digest

[Matthew R. Sheahan]

> Of all the membership of this list, other than myself and Nathan, are
> there __ANY__ not doing a fairly standard variation on a fantasy
> world?

the game I'm working on i've been describing as a "near-future
post-Judeo-Christian-apocalyptic cyberpunk sort of thing".  it probably
bears the strongest resemblance to the trading card game Heresy, and
from what people tell me is likely to resemble the RPGs In Nomine in
plot elements and Kult in flavor.

the basic idea is that the Battle of Armageddon arrived in 2012 and
kind of stomped all over the world.  then God disappeared in the middle
of it.  now it's 2030 or so and there are all these angels and demons
running around wondering what to do next.

that's sort of the "cover story" that the man on the street knows; what
actually happened is a lot more complex.

players initially have the options of playing humans (baseline or one
of the dozen or so gengineered specialist clades), forsaken (former
celestial angels), fallen (former infernal angels), hellspawn (things
born in Hell after the Fall), and changelings (non-humans who began being
born to human parents around 2012; sidhe, kentauroi, garou, dragons).
some more options will become available later as a result of species
interbreeding.  (i will have player reproduction.)

scientifically verifiable psionic abilities also began manifesting around
2012; after a few countrysides had been decimated by nascent psis, people
learned that techniques from occult tradition had application in managing
one's mental processes.  it's possible to learn to control one's psionic
abilities without using these techniques, but it's difficult; the basic
situation is that psi is the tool and magick is the skill.  so naturally
there are quite a few psis running around acting a lot like their culture's
idea of a magician.

i'd like to add the Central/South American jaguar people to that list of
"changelings" but haven't been able to find a native-language term for
them; if anyone can help me out i'd appreciate it.

								chiaroscuro